Wildlife Community Rec Center

Community Recreation Centers… for Wildlife

Lobelia cardinalis blooms along the creek.

Do you ever think about plants that grow in out-of-the-way places, like in the creek behind your house, or an urban waterway? No? For the most part, me neither—they are usually out of sight and out of mind.

Many think of them as mere drainage ditches, standing ready to take on the next big rain; to some degree, they are. When I’m looking over the backyard to the wall of trees at the edge of the creek between my house and the neighbors, or driving over an urban creek, looking over the bridge rail (normally I’m focused on the road), I see a tangle of trees, vines, cattails, and willows. It’s difficult to see past the edge because there is such a thicket.

You might call these plants weeds (we each have different ideas about what a weed is), but in these instances, I think of them as plants with purpose. Trees along streams, especially willows, slow water, secure creek banks, and are food host plants for a myriad of butterfly and moth species, which are fed to baby birds in the nest. Berry-producing vines like grape, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy feed adult birds who need to fatten up for winter. Cattails grow densely in standing water, preventing erosion, filtering pollutants and supporting an array of aquatic insect species like dragonflies. All of these plants provide public service at no cost. Their seeds flew in on the wind or from a bird, or floated from upstream. Nobody planted them, and few communities maintain them. In many areas, species like elm, boxelder, Ohio buckeye, sassafras, persimmon, sycamore, cottonwood, and oak line our urban creeks. They prevent streambank erosion, preserve a sense of place, and support an abundance of wildlife diversity—in many cases, they are often the greatest source of wildlife diversity left in a community.

Shady Creek in Webster Groves, Missouri is just such a place. Yvonne Steingruby, the Webster parks superintendent, manages Shady Creek. She, and her staff, volunteers (and hired goats!), have been working to remove invasive species from the creek’s riparian corridor. From the outside looking in, views are opening up. You can see the creek water in many places. The dense network of trees and vines at the edges is getting thinned out to reveal a hidden place. A lost world with migrating birds that pass through every spring and fall. According to John Hickey, a volunteer who works in Shady Creek, removing honeysuckle and winter-

SCOTT WOODBURY Horticulturist

Scott Woodbury was the horticulturist at Shaw Nature Reserve for 30 years and stepped down from that position in June 2022. He continues to work on contract for Shaw Nature Reserve to carry out native landscaping education, and has launched his own business called Cacalia: Native Garden Design and Wilding. Find suppliers of native plants, seeds, and services at the Grow Native! Resource Guide: www.moprairie.org.

Urban creek

creeper plants, the wooded corridor harbors barred owls, blue herons, and the minnows they devour. He’s also seen fox, opossum, bats, and many other critters of distinction. It has nesting nuthatches and woodpeckers. It has northern banded water snakes and their favorite food, frogs. It also has red-shouldered hawks, whose favorite food is northern banded water snakes. It also has dragonfly larvae living in the creek that devour mosquito larvae. How about that for public service! It is an ancient remnant ecosystem, though holding on for dear life. As broken as it may be, it’s the community’s greatest source of wildlife diversity.

Creek corridors like these are ground zero for wildlife survival in landscapes dominated by people and hardscape. They are breeding grounds, nurseries, and the epicenters of wildlife dissemination (spread) outward into our neighborhoods. Creek corridors are vital, but our home landscapes are important too. Wildlife spreads fluidly from creeks to parks and our backyards, looking for food, nesting ground, and cover. Without native plants and trees in our yards, wildlife has a difficult time surviving. Doug Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope, states that we need a threshold of at least 70% native vegetation in our neighborhoods for successful bird nesting. Our creek corridors (with their existing large native trees) get us closer to that magic number. We need to preserve the few creeks we have. We also need to increase native plant diversity in our homes, churches, and parks to get closer to 70%. We get further and further from that number every time we destroy a section of creek. We can’t improve on creek corridors by controlling them with concrete and retaining walls. We can’t improve on them by tearing out the existing vegetation and replacing it with new nursery plants propped up with sticks and a blanket of mulch.

Our neighborhood creeks are the lifeblood and safe place for wildlife, like a community center where users gather to visit, to learn, and maintain health. In the same way, urban creeks are vital to healthy thriving animal communities. We need to treat them with great respect and support them. Webster Groves is restoring creek corridors by removing invasive plants so that people can enjoy and appreciate them. As a result, they are supporting the greatest amount of native plants and wildlife possible.

Urban creeks need to function as wild places. Tree leaves need to fall to the ground to support overwintering luna moth cocoons. Gravel beds need to ripple clean water, to support minnows and herons. Still pools of water need rotting leaves and algae to feed tadpoles, salamanders, and dragonfly larvae, and their predators. Dead trees need to stand, to be homes for owls and woodpeckers. And they need to fall to become food for beetles and fungi. Willows need to thrive, to feed moth caterpillars that feed baby birds. All of this is happening now in a natural creek near you.

Let’s work harder to dedicate more time and funding to protect our creeks from bush honeysuckle (and developers). Let’s endeavor to walk gently beside (or inside) those creek corridors. After all, you can’t appreciate the sweet smell of sycamore leaves laying wet on the ground if you aren’t walking on top of them. You can’t really see a hummingbird sipping nectar from the spring flowers of Ohio buckeye on a web camera. You can’t hear the sound of chorus frogs while sitting in your living room. I’ll admit, that like Wakanda, the creek inhabitants might not appreciate us peering in from the outside, but somehow, that’s how we learn. That’s how we discover. That’s how we come to appreciate and value the things we love. We are curious explorers by nature. What better place to explore and appreciate, than the creeks that literally flow by our backyards and through the neighborhood. Happy creeking, ya’ll! For Home and Garden...

Euston Hardware 6955 Tomahawk Rd Prairie Village, KS 66208 (913) 262-1405 Euston Hardware 453 E Red Bridge Rd Kansas City, MO 64131 (816) 216-7197 Packs Hardware 116 N 169 Highway Smithville, MO 64089 (816) 532-0525

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